Quick aging of world's population presents an ever growing list and magnitude of challenges to our civilization, ranging from dramatic changes in the modern workforce size and composition, in economy and health insurance, to transformations in family lifestyles and in elderly care structure and costs.
According to the United Nations 2017 World Population Ageing report, the global population aged 60+ years has more than doubled to 962 million in 2017 compared with 1980 and is expected to double again by 2050 to reach approximately 2.1 billion. Additionally, the number of persons aged 80 years or over will grow even faster than the above rate and is expected to triple between 2017 and 2050 from 137 million to 425 million. By 2030, older persons (aged 60+ years) will outnumber children under the age of 10 and by 2050 will exceed the number of adolescents and youth aged 10-24 years (2.1 billion vs 2 billion). Percentagewise, by 2050, an older population is expected to account for 35 percent of the population in Europe, 28 percent in North America and 25 percent in Latin America.
Today, Japan is the oldest country in the world, with 33.4 percent of population aged 60+ years (4 percent higher than the second oldest country, Italy, with 29.4 percent of 60+ persons). Japan is expected to remain the oldest country in the world until at least 2050 when Japan will have an estimated 42.4 percent of population aged over 60 years.
Population aging in developed countries is a result of two main factors: low fertility rate and increased life expectancy. Thus, in Japan and in some other countries where the overall population is shrinking due to low fertility rates, some of the world's highest life expectancies for both men and women cause rapid increase of the aging population percentage.
In addition to the aging world's population, there is a significant and growing trend, where more and more aged people are living alone. On average, the share of aged people living independently (alone or with spouse only) has increased from 24 percent in 1990 to 37 percent in 2010. The share of independently living aged people is much higher in many developed countries: in the “more developed regions”, by the UN classification, the percent of independently living elderly people approaches 75 percent, of which, on the aggregate, 34.5 percent of females and 17 percent of males are living alone.
With the above population aging trends in mind, long-term elderly care (LTC) becomes a problem of national significance in an increasing number of countries. It is estimated that about 70 percent of individuals over age of 65 will require some type of long-term care services during their lifetime. Governments, businesses and non-profit organizations around the world are offering numerous long-term care options. In particular, Long-term care insurance is becoming an organic part of national healthcare insurance systems (available, for example, in the US from private insurers since late 1970's and in Japan municipally since 2000).
Long-term care providers and services in the US include adult day services centers, home health agencies, hospices, nursing homes, and residential care communities. According to a comprehensive 2014 CDC study of long-term care providers, services and users in the US, over six million individuals aged over 65 are receiving help from approximately 63,000 of the above providers and services, including 15600 nursing homes, 30200 residential care communities and excluding 4000 hospices, which provide care to an additional 1.34 million individuals. In Japan, around 25000 specialized long-term care facilities provide long-term elderly care.
One of the most important tasks of the long-term care system for aged individuals is permanent non-invasive monitoring of their condition to ensure their secure stay in long-term care facilities, as well as adequate performance of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and prevention of traumas, such as falls (which are known to occur, in particular, for 16 percent of elderly patients at skilled nursing facilities). Video cameras and other invasive tracking methods don't satisfy privacy requirements of elder individuals and may not be used on a permanent basis. Multiple solutions utilizing Wi-Fi networks and compact radars have been recently proposed for the purpose of tracking elderly individuals and other audiences. Examples include the Radar Health Monitor, developed by Kyoto University in partnership with Panasonic and Aura Wi-Fi motion technology by Cognitive Systems Corp.
Notwithstanding noticeable progress in the development of non-invasive tracking technologies and systems for the elderly individuals, the existing solutions are still rudimentary and don't address the majority of issues and tasks at hand. Wi-Fi motion technology uses low-frequency signals and receives negative reviews for its imprecision and failures to detect individual's status. The Radar Health Monitor is focused on monitoring vital signs of individuals, such as a heart rate, which requires static positioning of the individuals; but the existing solution cannot distinguish between a walking, standing and sitting individual and therefore accuracy and even applicability of its measurements at a specific moment may be questionable.
Accordingly, it is desirable to create a technology and system for a comprehensive, non-invasive and intelligent monitoring of elderly individuals.